Arts Council helping visually impaired see shows

Steve Smith, audio describer and co-founder of Amaryllis Theatre Company of Philadelphia, trains a group of Lehigh Valley residents in methods to describe performances to people with limited sight.

Steve Smith, audio describer and co-founder of Amaryllis Theatre Company of Philadelphia, trains a group of Lehigh Valley residents in methods to describe performances to people with limited sight. (CHRISTY POTTER, SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL)

Christy PotterSpecial to The Morning Call

How to enjoy theater if you can't see? LV Arts Council has answer.

For those with limited or no vision, a play or musical is difficult to fully experience.

Thanks to the Lehigh Valley Arts Council, theater patrons with vision impairments will soon be able to "see" sets, costumes, even the expression on the actors' faces, with the help of an audio description service.

This weekend, nine residents participated in an audio description training workshop sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Arts Council and led by Mimi and Steve Smith, co-founders of Amaryllis Theatre Company of Philadelphia. Mimi Smith is also executive director of VSA Pennsylvania, which brings together people from the cultural and disability communities to develop greater inclusion in cultural events. Steve Smith is a trained audio describer.

Audio description is just as it sounds. Trained describers tell vision-impaired audience members, via a headset, what's on the stage. And that, trainees learned this weekend, is harder than it sounds. During Saturday's training, all watched a short clip from the opening of Stephen Sondheim's "Company," then wrote out pre-show notes — a detailed description that enables listeners to visualize the set as sighted audience members see it.

Audio describers must remain objective, never giving opinions about what's happening on the stage. They can use colors in their description. As Steve Smith said, color has meaning to most people. But he cautioned trainees against providing too much description.

"When I started, I would give details about items on a shelf that I only knew because I'd gone up ahead of time and looked," he explained. "The audience couldn't even really see them. That much description isn't necessary."

As part of this weekend's training, participants attended Thursday night's performance of "Harvey" at DeSales University and listened to an audio-described performance.

Audio description also is used in television, movies and at museums.

Audio describers are even trained to detail dance, something trainee Bobby Torres of Allentown knows a lot about. A former stage dancer who toured with "Evita" and "Cats," Torres is now an educational sign-language interpreter and was taking the training to expand what he can offer to those with disabilities.

Jill Arington of Bethlehem, who is the educational director for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, said she attended to find out if audio description is something the festival could offer its patrons.

"I'm at the theater all the time and I see the shows over and over, so it just seems like something I could enjoy, and something I could be good at," Arington said.

Randall Forte, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Arts Council, said he hopes to offer two more training sessions.

"Why should people with disabilities not have the same access to the arts that everyone else has?" Forte said. "We want to make the arts accessible to everyone. After all, the arts are communal. They naturally bring people together."